So with no time left, she caught a plane at 5 a.m. last Wednesday and headed to one of the nation's 13 regional passport centers in Houston. She dropped $500 in air and cab fair to stand in line with hundreds of others for hours.

But she finally got her passport.

"It was a big 'ol cluster," she said. "It was horrible."

No longer able to fly to hot spots such as Mexico or the Caribbean without a passport, Americans are requesting them in record numbers. It's no different locally, where county officials say they have already processed more requests for passports this year than they did all of 2006.

Sucsy

The wait is more than 13 weeks in some cases. And there's no guarantee you'll get one if you show up in person at one of the regional facilities, as Okonek did in Houston.

"This is not going to go away," said Barbara Sucsy, the Lubbock County district clerk.

The federal government has made two major changes to the way Americans travel. As of January, anyone flying between the U.S. and another country, even Mexico and Canada, is required to bring a passport. The law changes again in January 2008, when the rules extend to anyone driving, traveling in trains or by sea.

The U.S. Census does not track how many Americans have passports, but several studies show the vast majority do not - a big reason for the sudden surge.

Okonek eventually received the passport she requested in the mail, she said. It came from a regional office in South Carolina, where an employee there told her more than 800,000 requests were being processed.

Through Monday, the Lubbock district clerk's office had processed 1,145 passport requests this year. That compares with 769 requests in all of 2006. As recently as four years ago, the office was doing no more than 240 a year.

Smaller counties are feeling the crunch, too. Stephanie Chester, district clerk in Lamb County, said the number of passports processed there has already reached last year's total - about 100.

It's a windfall for counties, who charge a $30 administrative fee for each application. Lubbock County will probably add $85,000 to $100,000 to its coffers this year.

But it also means there might not be enough employees to do the work. Sucsy said she normally has just three employees trained to do passports. This year, it's 24.

The county's personnel committee will ask county commissioners during the summer budget review to give her more staff. But Sucsy knows the first 145 employees the county hires will go to the new jail.

None of which matters much to travelers, who are left wondering why federal officials adopted the guidelines without a way to handle the surge it would make, Okonek said.

"I don't think it's worth the hassle if you're going to Mexico, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas," she said. "If they are going to do this, they need the manpower. People are missing the trip of a lifetime."